This is a copy of the statue, probably a Roman copy of a 4th Century B.C. Greek original, of Menelaus supporting the Body of Patroclus in the Loggia dei Lanzi, Florence. Fuseli stayed in Florence in 1770, on his way to Rome, and may well have gone back there later, particularly on his journey back to Zurich in 1778. The drawing on the verso, begun in pencil and gone over in ink, was done first; that on the recto shows the sculpture in reverse. Peter Tomory, who illustrated th esculpture 9The Life and Art of Henry Fuseli, 1972, pl. 60) points out the importance of the work, and in particular the limp arm, Fuseli and his contemporaries such as James Barry (1741-1806)